Methods and apparatus for zooming during capture and reproduction of 3-dimensional images

ABSTRACT

In the capture and display of three dimensional images, techniques are provided for controlling the amount of disparity between left and right images used to create a three dimensional representation to permit three dimensional perception which would otherwise be lost as disparity increased beyond psychological and physiological limits. Both mechanical and electronic means for controlling disparity are shown. Techniques are disclosed for creating three dimensional animations which utilize disparity control for adjusting the perceived depth of an object vis-a-vis a neutral plane.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/339,156,filed Nov. 10, 1994 now abandoned.

This application is a continuation in part of application Ser. No.08/335,381 by the same inventors, filed Nov. 3, 1994, titled METHOD ANDAPPARATUS FOR THE CREATION AND TRANSMISSION OF 3-DIMENSIONAL IMAGES, thecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

This application is also related to application Ser. No. 08/318,047,filed Oct. 4, 1994, titled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTERACTIVE IMAGECORRELATION FOR THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGE PRODUCTION the contents of whichare hereby incorporated by reference.

This application is also related to application Ser. No. 08/327,471filed Oct. 21, 1994, titled METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR RAPIDLY RENDERINGPHOTO-REALISTIC SURFACE ON 3-DIMENSIONAL WIRE FRAMES AUTOMATICALLY thecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

When capturing and reproducing 3-dimensional images in the prior art,information from one camera of a stereo pair of cameras was depicted asone color (e.g. orange) or band of colors and information from the othercamera of the pair was depicted in a complimentary color or color band.When viewing such images through 3-dimensional viewers, such as red/blueglasses, the reproduced image would not be perceived in color.

The orange elements in the picture are only seen through the blue lens,the red lens “washing out” the orange elements. For the same reason, thegreen-blue elements are only seen through the red lens. Hence, each eyesees only one of the two colored pictures. But because the differentcolored elements are horizontally shifted in varying amounts, theviewer's eyes must turn inward to properly view some elements, and turnoutward to properly view others. Those elements for which the eyes turninward, which is what the viewer does to observe a close object, arenaturally perceived as close to the viewer. Elements for which theviewer's eyes turn outward are correspondingly perceived as distant.Specifically, if the blue lens covers the viewer's right eye, as isgenerally conventional, then any blue-green element shifted to the leftof its corresponding orange element appears to the viewer as close. Theelement appears closer the greater the leftward shift. Conversely, as agreen-blue element is shifted only slightly leftward, not at all, oreven to the right of its corresponding red element, that element willappear increasingly more distant from the viewer.

The above mentioned co-pending applications teach techniques forproducing color 3-dimensional images.

When 3-dimensional images are captured, corresponding points of the leftimage are displaced from the same points in the right imagehorizontally. A measurement of the amount of displacement is called“disparity”. In the prior art when stereo images are made, the disparityfor all subject matter visible in both images is fixed. In digitalimages, disparity can be measured in terms of the number of pixels anobject is displaced in the right image relative to its position in theleft image. Fixed focal length lenses are customarily used for thecameras

In an object with zero disparity, the corresponding pixels for the leftand right images are perfectly superimposed and the object appears to belocated on the screen. Zero disparity objects are seen most clearly whenthe eyes are crossed just enough to focus on the plane of the screen.Negative disparity objects appear to come out of screen toward theviewer and are seen most clearly when the eyes are more crossed.Positive disparity objects appear to be more distant than the screen andare seen most clearly when the eyes are less crossed.

The eyes cross or uncross in order to get similar image features on ornear the fovea of each eye. The “farthest” object that can be seen in ananaglyph is limited by the observers ability to comfortably uncross theeyes. (The usual limit to distant viewing is set by the condition wherethe eyes look along parallel axes, but such “wall-eyed” condition israrely comfortable to the observer.)

In an anaglyph, the disparity for all objects is fixed and is measuredin terms of pixels of displacement. When one “zooms-in” on a computerimage to see more detail, the pixels get larger and the center-to-centerspacing between pixels becomes larger. Therefore, constant disparity(measured in pixels) image components become physically farther apart onthe screen. In order for the human visual system to fuse imagecomponents and produce the sensation of true stereo vision the eyes haveto uncross more for each step of “zoom-in”. Eventually, the physicalseparation between corresponding image components becomes so great thatthe eyes cannot “uncross” comfortably any more (wall-eyed condition) andstereo depth is lost to the observer.

Some stereo images cover such a great range of depth and will have suchwidely varying values (even without a “zoom-in”) that some portions ofthe image will always be out of range of the observer's ability to seethe stereo effects, regardless of how the anaglyph was formed.

Three dimensional techniques are closely related to the psychology andphysiology of an observer's cognitive processes. Subtle changes inselection of portions of the spectrum presented to each eye can resultin significant changes in the observer's perception. Even when viewingthe same 3-dimensional image through the same viewers, differentobservers may perceive a 3-dimensional image in different ways.

The depth location of the point at which the left and right image pointsfor objects at that distance coincided constitutes a “neutral plane” andwhen observing a fixed disparity 3-dimensional image, the neutral planewould be found at the surface of the medium of reproduction (i.e. paperor CRT display). Items that appear closer than the medium surface andthose points in the image which appear behind the neutral plane wouldhave different disparity. The loss of depth perception when disparityexceeds a certain value generally means that when zooming-in on part ofa stereo image pair that disparity will become so great that depthperception will be lost. This is a serious drawback when, for example,attempting to use medical images captured in stereo for instructionalpurposes. Typically, one would need to examine parts of an object indetail by going close up. This problem is analogous to having a fixedfocal length microscope and being unable to see close up features whichdo not lie directly in the focal plane.

Also in the prior art, when capturing 3-dimensional images on film,magnetic tape or the like, there is no way to visually monitor thecombined impact of the separate images being captured. As a result thereis no way of adjusting disparity or automatically tracking an object andadjusting disparity automatically.

In the prior art, there is no way to control an image so as to positionit either in front of or behind a neutral plane in a controllablefashion. This limits the ability to create 3-dimensional animations.

Also in the prior art, there was no way to adjust the views of3-dimensional images captured on a static medium, such as CD/ROM.

The prior art lacked the ability to zoom-in on portions of a scene whencapturing the scene from one location. In order to zoom-in on a scene inthe prior art, a stereo camera pair with fixed focal length had to bephysically relocated closer to the object being captured.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

One advantage of the invention is that it allows for controllingdisparity when capturing or reproducing an image.

Another advantage of the invention is that it permits a user to controlthe disparity by which left and right images are separated.

Another advantage of the invention is the simultaneous adjustment offocal length in stereo camera pairs.

Another advantage of the invention is the ability to adjust cameraseparation or camera tow-in.

Another advantage of the invention is that it permits zooming-in onportions of a stereo image without losing depth perception.

Another advantage of the invention is the ability to control thelocation of the neutral plane in 3-dimensional views, thus enablingobjects to be controllably placed in front of the neutral plane (poppingout of the screen) or behind the neutral plane (in background).

Another advantage of the invention is the ability to create a computeranimation using disparity control to produce very realistic animationswhich move in front of and behind the neutral plane.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention are achieved byproviding methods and apparatus for viewing three dimensional imageswhich shift one image view with respect to an other image view tocontrol the amount of disparity between corresponding points of the twoviews and displays the image views so as to form a three dimensionalimage. The shifting of one image view with respect to another isaccomplished by cropping two image planes at different ends by theamount of a desired disparity shift and then combining the cropped imageplanes to produce a three dimensional display. The shifting can also beaccomplished by limiting the read out of certain addresses of each lineof video memory image information using a shift register to receiving aline of image data and selecting which cell of the shift register isused for shifting the contents of the shift register to an output.

The invention is also directed to apparatus for capturing and storingthree dimensional images using a left camera and a right camera, eachwith a zoom lens. The zoom lenses are controlled so that each camerazooms substantially identical amounts when zooming is used.

The invention also relates to apparatus for mechanically controllingdisparity of images captured by two different cameras, and storing thoseimages. One camera is movably mounted for controlled movement withrespect to the other, such as toe-in or horizontal offset.

The invention is further directed to an apparatus for zooming on a sceneusing a three dimensional camera arrangement with each camera having azoom lens. The zoom lenses are controlled with servomechanism so thateach zoom lens zooms the same amount. A number of coding indications maybe used to control the amount of zoom.

The inventions is further directed to apparatus for producing threedimensional images captured using a left and a right video cameraconnected to respective left and right video recorders. Images from theleft and right video recorders are synchronized with each other. Theoutput of the left video recorder is filtered to eliminate blue andgreen information and the output of the right video recorder is filteredto eliminate the red information. The two outputs are combined toproduce a three dimensional image.

The inventions is also directed to reproducing a three dimensional imagefrom first and second digital images stored on a storage medium such asCD/ROM. The first and second digital images are both demcomposed intored, green and blue color planes. One color plane of the first digitalimage is shifted with respect to other color planes of said seconddigital image and the shifted color plane of the first digital image iscombined with the other color planes to produce a three dimensionalimage.

The invention also comtemplates a method of live monitoring of threedimensional images being captured by first and second cameras to astorage medium separating the output of each camera into color planes,combining one color plane of said first camera with one or moredifferent color planes from said second camera; and by displaying thecombined color planes.

The invention also contemplates a method of automatically adjusting animage parameter such as disparity during creation of a reproduction of alive scene by placing a small, highly reflective material on a target tobe tracked, illuminating said hightly reflective material, using thebright spot created by reflection from said hightly reflective materialfor calculating target position and by adjusting said image parameterbased on the calculated target position. The image parameter can also befocus or zoom.

The invention is also directed to a method of moving the apparentposition of an object represented as left and right images whichtogether constitute a three dimensional image viewed by a viewer to makethe object appear to move toward the viewer or recede away from theviewer by shifting the position of the left and right images to changethe disparity between the left and right imges to thereby cause theperceived relative positions of the object to move

The invention also permits creating a three dimensional computergenerated animation of an object by representing said object as a threedimensional wire frame, rendering a surface on said wireframe, creatingtwo color perspective views of said rendered wireframe, separating eachof said two color perspective views of said rendered wireframe into 3color planes, combining one color plane from one of said views with twoother color planes from the other view, storing the combined colorplanes as a three dimensional image, moving said object by modifyingsaid wire frame; and repeating the steps for as many iterations asdesired and then displaying sequentially each three dimensional imagesstored as a three dimensional animation.

Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomereadily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, wherein only the preferred embodiment of the invention isshown and described, simply by way of illustration of the best modecontemplated of carrying out the invention. As will be realized, theinvention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its severaldetails are capable of modifications in various obvious respects allwithout departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings anddescription are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not asrestrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of disparity variations as a function ofdistance from the neutral plane.

FIG. 2 shows the cropping of two image planes to vary the amount ofdisparity.

FIG. 3 illustrates two cameras used for capturing 3-dimensional imageswhich are adjustable to control tow-in or horizontal displacement fromeach other.

FIG. 4 shows two cameras for capturing 3-dimensional images which havezoom lenses control simultaneously.

FIG. 5 shows disparity adjustment when displaying right and left staticimages from a storage medium.

FIG. 6 illustrates a disparity shifter which utilizes addressdisplacement.

FIG. 7 illustrates another disparity shifter which utilizes a shiftregister output for selectable output tabs for controlling the croppingof images retrieved from storage.

FIG. 8 illustrates methods and apparatus for the capture andreproduction of 3-dimensional images utilizing video cassette recorders.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of how to make a three dimensional computergenerated animation.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The invention is based in part upon the inventors′ realization that,when viewing 3-dimensional images, a loss of depth perception ensuedwhen zooming-in on portions of the image. Subsequent work indicated thatmany of the problems related to the issue of disparity. As noted above,disparity is a measure of the amount of displacement betweencorresponding points of an image presented to the left eye via a vispoints on an image presented to the right eye. This is illustrated inFIG. 1.

In FIG. 1, a neutral plane is defined as running through point B. PointA is located behind the neutral plane and point C is located in front ofthe neutral plane when viewed from focal points 100 and 100′. Theprojection of points A, B and C through the respective focal points ontofocal planes 110 and 110′ results in points A_(L), B_(L), C_(L), A_(R),B_(R) and C_(R). Focal planes 110 and 110′ are shown transposed so as tobe vertically disposed with respect to each other. The distance betweenthe image of points A, B and C on the left image plane and points A, Band C on the right image plane are illustrated. The measure of thedistances A, B and C shown beneath the vertically aligned focal planesis measure of the disparity. As can be seen in FIG. 1, the further apoint is from the neutral plane, the greater the disparity is.

At some point, the disparity becomes so great that a viewer is incapableof recognizing the depth information and fusing the two images into asingle 3-dimensional view. As a point regresses further behind theneutral plane, the angular difference between points separated by a unitdistance becomes progressively less and so a big difference in depthwill result in a smaller angular displacement on the focal planes onwhich points far behind the neutral plane are projected. This results ina loss of depth detail at far distances behind the neutral plane.

The inventors have discovered that both of these problems can beovercome by allowing the user to control or adjust the amount ofdisparity between corresponding points on the two image planes. Thisprinciple is applicable to all stereo viewing systems and not just tothose using color viewers.

For example, if distance B shown at the bottom of FIG. 1 represents theamount of disparity at a neutral plane, and if the amount of disparityshown at C was so great as to result in a loss of depth perception,depth perception can be restored by shifting image plane 110 vis a visimage plane 110′ so that the distance C between corresponding points isreduced to that of distance B, i.e. to a position on the neutral plane.

FIG. 2 shows at a high level how this may be done. FIG. 2 illustratestwo color video images 200L and 200R which were captured by left andright digital cameras, such as video cameras or digital still cameras.In creating three dimensional images, it is convenient to utilize, asset forth in the above patent application Ser. No. 08/335,381 separationof left and right images into color planes as shown. Image 200Lconstitutes the red color plane from the left camera and 200Rconstitutes the blue and green color planes from the right camera. Whencombined, into a three color plane representation, three dimensionalimages are produced and are viewable using standard red-blue viewers.This particular technique perserves color information as indicated inthe aforesaid co-pending application. As shown in FIG. 2, the left andright views of point X are located 30 and 40 pixels displaced from theleft edge of the image as indicated. There is thus a 10 pixel disparitybetween the position of the left and right points. By shifting the colorplanes so that the image 200R is displaced 5 pixels to the left and byshifting the image 200L 5 pixels to the right, the two views of point Xwill exactly coincide or, in other words, point X will lie in theneutral plane when viewed. FIG. 2 illustrates that the shifting isaccomplished by truncating the image by 5 pixels on the left side ofimage 200R and by 5 pixels on the right side of 200L. Although notrequired, this is done because some image processing packages requirethat both images be of the same size in order to combine them.

Disparity adjustment may occur manually. FIG. 3 illustrates twodifferent ways in which disparity adjustment can occur.

Disparity can be adjusted by changing the toe-in angle between the twocameras 300 and 300′. Each camera is illustrated as being mounted on apivot point 320 or 320′ and the angular orientation of a camera isadjusted by screwdrive 330 which moves the rear end of the cameravis-a-vis points 335A and 335B. Even if this were not required fordisparity adjustment, it would be a useful mounting for ensuringparallel alignment of the two cameras.

The other method involves changing the separation of the cameras 300 and300′ by moving one with respect to the other along rails 340 and 340′.As shown in the left hand view of FIG. 3, the inner part of rail of 340′has teeth 345 which constitute part of a rack-and-pinion drive. Thepinion 360 is driven by servo motor 350 to permit the entire platform tomove vis-a-vis the other camera.

In the prior art, three dimensional cameras utilized fixed focal lengthlenses. That is, the focal length could not vary to permit a zoomingfunction. This is somewhat inflexible since in standard movie or videomaking, zooming is a very convenient tool for the camera man. If oneimage of a stereo image pair were larger than the other by virtue ofdifferent settings of a zoom lens, image offsets would occur which wouldinterfere with human perception of depth, and thus the stereoscopiceffect would be lost.

FIG. 4 illustrates one mechanism for permitting zoom lenses to zoom insynchronism so that the integrity of the three dimensional resultingimage is preserved. Cameras 400 and 400′ are each equipped with zoomlenses 410 and 410′, respectively. A cross member 420 engages bothlenses 410 and 410′ in such a way that motion imparted to one is alsoimparted to the other. Member 420 is driven by either a rack-and-piniondriven arm 430 or by a screw mechanism utilizing servo motor 440 withoptional gearbox 450. Thus, when the arm 430 is displaced by the servomotor, zoom lenses 410 and 410′ move in synchronism in and out dependingon the direction of actuation.

Individual stepping motors can be used to control the zooming ofindividual lenses. One lens is the master, the other the slave. Acombination look up table tells the slave how many steps to moverelative to the movement of the master.

FIG. 5 illustrates an arrangement for displaying three dimensionalimages which have been stored in storage such as a CD ROM. CD ROM player500 serves left and right images of a stereo image pair. These are readinto respective left and right image buffers 510 and 510′. The imagesare stored and the image buffers accomodate full color images, typicallyin 24-bit format with 8 bits of each format constituting, for example,red, green and blue image planes. Image buffers 510 and 510′ outputtheir respective image planes to disparity shifter 520. Disparityshifter 520 is described in more detail hereinafter. Again, in keepingwith the disclosure of the aforesaid co-pending patent application, thered image plane of the left image is combined with the green and blueimage planes of the right image to produce a composite three dimensionalimage. Disparity shifter 520 allows the left and right image planes tobe shifted relative to each other.

FIG. 6 illustrates one form of disparity shifter utilizable with thearrangement of FIG. 5. Random access memory 600 and 600′ may either bethe actual image storage 510 and 510′ of the previous figure or, whenlive digital images are being received, may constitute separate videoRAMS. Once an image is stored in each RAM 600, the data may be read outusing X and Y decoders 610, 610′ and 620. An address source 630 feedsboth the X and Y decoders. A register 640, contains the number “n” whichindicates the amount of disparity shift desired for the image plane.Control of the amount of disparity shift can be accomplished by simplychanging the value of the variable “n” in register 640. Subtractor 650and adder 660 respectively subtract and add the value “n” to the columnaddresses of the Y decoders. As the address source 630 sequences througheach line, the columns at the beginning and end will be truncated asshown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 shows another method for disparity shifting. The output fromvideo RAM is fed in parallel to a shift register and then the data isclocked to an output port for use. As shown in FIG. 7 by selecting whichoutput cell to take the output from when shifting the shift register'soutput content to the right one can effectively delete a number ofpixels “n” from the output stream. Since this is done line by line theentire image will be truncated on the right end in the version shown. Avalue “n” is written in register 720 and that value causes decoder 730to select one of the outputs indicated. Activation of one of thoseoutputs causes one, and only one, of the and gates, illustrated as 740through 743 to permit data from the connected cell of the shift registerto pass through to or gate 750 where it is passed to the outputterminal. To truncate pixels from the other end of the RAM 700, onewould add a number of additional shift register cells to the right ofthe last cell currently shown and utilize the selection gates andprocedures described with reference to FIG. 7. In this alternative, anumber of shifting clock pulses will be utilized equal to the number ofcells in the shift register. Since there are more cells in the shiftregister than there are clock pulses, the last few cells from the leftend of the shift register will not be read out to the output of or gate750. The shift register is reset prior to loading in the next line ofdata from RAM 700.

FIG. 8 illustrates another approach to producing three dimensionalimages. Analog video cameras 800 and 800′ record full color images of ascene on VCRs 810 and 810′, respectively. When played back, the outputof one of the VCRs is fed to a red filter 820 which extracts redinformation, and the output of the other VCR is fed to filter 830 whichextracts blue/green information. The output of filters 820 and 830 areoptionally brightened and combined in a frequency combiner such as anadder, and passed to output terminal 850. In the signal paths describedthus far, there is no way for anyone to see the image in real time so asto determine the adequacy of the stereo production. Although a cameramancan view the scene being captured through the viewers of each of cameras800 and 800′, those views are two dimensional. By using a threedimensional image maker, such as that disclosed in the aforesaidco-pending application, the color signals from each of the analog videoare converted into individual color planes and the red color plane fromthe left camera is combined with the green and blue color planes fromthe right camera to produce a three dimensional image suitable fordisplay on color cathode ray tubes 870. When viewed through viewers, onecan see in real time the three dimensional image produced by the camerapair 800 800′.

When capturing live scenes using apparatus such as shown in FIG. 8, itis sometimes necessary to track the distance of an object or person fromthe cameras. One way of doing this is to place a small, highlyreflective material, such as 3M reflective tape, on the target to betracked. If that target is illuminated with a light source, a highlyvisible point on the target will appear in the captured image. One canutilize such bright spots created by reflection for calculating targetposition based on the position of the high intensity target on thescreen. Typically, one would monitor the intensity value of the pixelsand when a very intense pixel is identified, the address of the pixelwould be captured and utilized in a calculation, such as that describedin co-pending application Ser. No. 08/318,047 to determine distance fromthe cameras to the target. This distance then can be utilized toestablish a number of camera parameters such as focus, disparity orzoom.

The presence of such a bright pixel in the output image can be easilydetected and removed by routine image processing techniques eitheron-line or in the post production suite.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a method for creating three dimensionalcomputer generated animations of an object. First, the object isrepresented as a three dimensional wire frame (900). Then a surface isrendered on the wire frame (905). Then, two color prospective views ofsaid rendered wire frame are created, one from the position of a firstcamera and another from the position of a different camera (910). Eachpropective view is separated into three color planes (915). Optionally,the disparity between the two views can be controlled so that the objectpops out or moves behind the neutral plane (920). One color plane fromone of the views is combined with two different color planes from theother view and the combined color planes are stored as three dimensionalimages (930). The wire frame representation of the three dimensionalobject is then moved as desired incrementally (935) and steps 905through 930 are repeated for as many iterations as desired (940). Oncesets of three dimensional images are created in this manner, they may bedisplayed sequentially in rapid succession as part of a threedimensional animation.

In this disclosure, there is shown and described only the preferredembodiment of the invention, but, as aforementioned, it is to beunderstood that the invention is capable of use in various othercombinations and environments and is capable of changes or modificationswithin the scope of the inventive concepts as expressed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. Apparatus for viewing three dimensional colorimages comprising: an image shifter shifting one color plane of oneimage view with respect to less than all color planes of another imageview, and a display connected to said one color plane and to the lessthan all color planes without color matrixing to form a threedimensional color image.
 2. Apparatus for capturing a three dimensionalimage, comprising: a left and a right color camera capturing left andright color images of a scene; respectively; an image shifter shiftingthe position of one color plane of one of the left or right color imageswith respect to less than all color planes of the other of said left orright color images; and a storage medium storing said one color planeand said less than all color planes as a three dimensional color imagewithout color matrixing.
 3. Apparatus for capturing a three dimensionalimage, comprising: a left and a right color camera capturing left andright color images of a scene, respectively; an image shifter shiftingthe position of one color plane of one of the left or right color imageswith respect to less than all color planes of the other of said left orright color images; and a combiner merging said one color plane and saidless than all color planes without color matrixing as a threedimensional color image.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the imageshifter crops two image planes at different ends by the amount of adesired disparity shift and combines the cropped image planes to producea three dimensional display.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1 in which theimage shifter limits a read out of certain addresses of each line ofimage information.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the imageshifter comprises a shift register for receiving a line of image dataand a selector for determining which cell of the shift register is usedfor shifting the contents of the shift register to an output.
 7. Amethod of moving the apparent position of an object represented as leftand right color images which together constitute a three dimensionalimage viewed by a viewer to make the object appear to move toward theviewer or recede away from the viewer, comprising: a. shifting theposition of one color plane of one of the left or right color imageswith respect to less than all color planes of the other of said left orright color images; and b. combining said one color plane with said lessthan all color planes of said other of said left or right color imageswithout color matrixing to produce a three dimensional color image. 8.Apparatus for viewing a three dimensional image, comprising: a source ofleft and right color images of a scene; an image shifter shifting theposition of one color plane of one of the left or right color imageswith respect to less than all other color planes of the other of saidleft or right color images; and a display circuit combining said onecolor plane and said less than all color planes as a three dimensionalcolor image without color matrixing.
 9. A method for viewing threedimensional color images comprising the steps of: shifting one colorplane of one image view of a scene with respect to less than all colorplanes of an other image view of said scene, and displaying color planeswithout color matrixing from the one and the other image views so as toform a three dimensional color image.
 10. A method for reproducing athree dimensional image from a first digital color image and a seconddigital color image stored on a storage medium, comprising the steps of:a. retrieving each of said first digital color image and said seconddigital color images from said storage medium and presenting them asrespective sets of red, green and blue color planes; b. shifting onecolor plane of a first set with respect to less than all color planes ofa second set; and c. combining the color plane of said first set withcolor planes of said second set without color matrixing to produce athree dimensional color image.
 11. A method for capturing a threedimensional image, comprising the steps of: capturing left and rightcolor images of a scene; respectively; shifting the position of onecolor plane of one of the left or right color images with respect toless than all other color planes of the other of said left or rightcolor images; and storing said one color plane and said less than allother color planes without color matrixing as a three dimensional colorimage.
 12. A method for capturing a three dimensional image, comprisingthe steps of: capturing left and right color images of a scene,respectively; shifting the position of one color plane of one of theleft or right color images with respect to less than all other colorplanes of the other of said left or right color images; and merging saidone color plane and said less than all other color planes without colormatrixing as a three dimensional color image.
 13. A method for viewing athree dimensional image comprising left and right color images,comprising the steps of: shifting the position of one color plane of oneof the left or right color images with respect to less than all colorplanes of the other of said left or right color images; and combiningsaid one color plane and said less than all color planes without colormatrixing as a three dimensional color image.
 14. Apparatus forreproducing a three dimensional image from a first and a second digitalcolor images stored on a storage medium, comprising: a. a storageretrieval circuit retrieving each of said first and second digital colorimages from said storage medium and presenting them as respective setsof red, green and blue color planes; b. a color plane shifter shiftingone color plane of a first set with respect to less than all colorplanes of a second set; and c. a display circuit combining the colorplane of said first set with said less than all color planes of saidsecond set without color matrixing to produce a three dimensional colorimage.